Hands on
by MariaShadow
Summary: G1 Sunstreaker urgently needs repairs, but it's far easier said than done.


Hands on

Though at one time or another Ratchet had commented that he had operated on the twins so often he could do it with his optics shut, he had never expected that boast to be tested.

"Well?" Sideswipe asked, his voice thick with worry.

"I can't see a slaggin' thing!" Ratchet yelled back, trying to make himself heard over the howling storm outside the cave that he, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker had sheltered in. "You have to tell me what you see."

The sunset of the previous day had been accompanied by the beginning of a torrential thunderstorm. Local forecasters had dubbed it a 'weather bomb', eight month's worth of bad weather squeezed into a week. Ratchet had a few other names for it, but none of them were repeatable.

And joy of joys, the Decepticons had decided to capitalise on this opportunity by intensifying the bad weather in an attempt to glean a few hundred cubes of energon from the raw fury of nature; not to mention the enormous collateral damage that would be caused to the local infrastructure by the flash floods, high winds and possible tornadoes.

The Autobots had been in the midst of a charge up the mountain where Megatron had entrenched himself when two things happened. Firstly, Sunstreaker got caught in a landslide; then as Sideswipe dragged his damaged and offline brother to Ratchet, Laserbeak and Buzzsaw attacked the medic and in the process raked their talons across the medic's face, shattering both of his optics. Sideswipe drove the birds off with an well-aimed shot and a barrage of choice words before both guiding the blinded medic and carrying his twin through the downpour to a cave he had spotted earlier.

Calling for help was a moot point, as Soundwave was broadcasting a thick jamming signal from the mountain's peak. As far as Ratchet knew, nobody was aware of what had happened.

Now, Ratchet was dragging himself into some semblance of calm before beginning the emergency surgery that his scanners were telling him that Sunstreaker very badly needed. His own wounds were minimal, and luckily the storm was starting to abate so they didn't have to shout to be heard but the rain was still falling.

"So, what do you see?" Ratchet asked again, trying to be patient.

"Well," Sideswipe paused to study his brother's battered frame, "he's got a gash running from his right shoulder down to his left hip, his right foot is all messed up, I think there's something wrong with his right arm and there's a big dent in his back, along with all the other scrapes and dents and stuff."

"Anything leaking?"

"Umm, yeah. His chest and foot. Both have energon and some other stuff leaking out."

"What colour?"

"Uh, kinda greenish and sticky looking."

Ratchet nodded as he built up a mental map of the injuries and added that information to what his scanners were telling him. "All right," he said as he shifted to a kneeling position next to the still form of the yellow warrior, "guide my hands to his leg."

"Huh?"

Ratchet bit his lip and kept his temper in check. Yelling would not help right now. "I need you to go to the opposite side of Sunstreaker and put my hands on the damaged part of his leg. All my scanners can show me is a silhouette of Sunstreaker's body with a blip on the area where there is damage. I can't actually see where the damage begins." He explained patiently, pronouncing each word slowly and with care.

"Oh."

Ratchet could hear a scrape as Sideswipe got up, stepped around Sunstreaker's body and knelt. Two hands gently grabbed the medic's wrists and carefully pulled down and to the right.

The CMO gently ran his hands over the slick and shredded metal, his fingers gently exploring each rent and committing the location to memory as he imagined what each one looked like.

It was the sense of touch that separated the surgeons from the field medics, that delicate ability to pick out each mar in a mech's framework and then correct it. Ratchet began a running commentary, partially for his sake and partially for Sideswipe's, as he set to work.

"I'm locating the main energon line to Sunstreaker's foot and clamping it," he began as he cut a square of armour from the inside of Sunstreaker's calf, "I have to stem this leak before it can tear open any further."

"But what about the other stuff?" Sideswipe interrupted.

"Hydraulic fluid and coolant." Ratchet briskly answered. "He can put up with creaking joints for a while, I'll fix it later." There was a slight click as Ratchet secured the clamp. "Now, put my hands on his shoulders. I need to unlatch his chest plate to get at his systems."

Sideswipe complied and Ratchet quickly found the clasps and unlocked them, then working from memory, unlocked the ones on the mech's sides.

With the chest plate out of the way, Ratchet gingerly traced the ragged and oily damage left by what had obviously been a far too close encounter with a boulder. Ratchet could feel grit and sharp flakes of granite, which he picked out as soon as his inquiring fingers located them. "There's the casing for his laser core_,"_ he reminded himself as he encountered the curved sheet of durasteel. "That's his spark chamber, fuel tank and… slaggit!"

"What? What it is?" Sideswipe demanded. Ratchet swore under his breath for a minute as his probing fingers traced out the rest of the damage. "Sideswipe, tell me what you see." He ordered, hoping that it didn't look nearly as bad as what he could feel.

"There's a lot of energon, some coolant, a couple of chunks of rock and burn wiring, but that's all I can see, there's too much hydraulic fluid in the way."

Ratchet swore again as a new alert window popped up, his onboard medical scanners warbling about the latest threat to the yellow Lamborghini's life.

"Sideswipe, I need you to donate some of your internal components to replace Sunstreaker's damaged ones." Ratchet said as he tried to wipe away the worst of the sticky goo that had flooded the yellow twin's chest cavity.

Without hesitation Sideswipe asked, "What parts do you need?" Ratchet could hear the red twin unclasping his own chest plate.

"For starters, your backup power regulator." The medic instructed. "You have to clamp the energon lines leading to it before you can disconnect it from your energon converter." He said as he fished several clamps out of subspace and held them out for the warrior to take.

Moments later Ratchet felt the requested part being placed in his open hand. He closed his fingers around it and set it down next to him while he gingerly scooped Sunstreaker's primary power regulator out from among the surrounding systems with his free hand. "While I swap out these components, I want you to remove the coolant pump located in the upper left of your chest." Ratchet instructed. "Make sure you shut off the valves on either side of the pump or else you'll be spurting coolant all over the place. I have enough problems with your brother without you deciding you want some attention too."

Within moments of splicing the new components into place, Ratchet's internal alarms stopped trilling.

"How is he?" Sideswipe queried.

"Alive. You can put your chest plate back on now." Ratchet answered briskly. He felt on the ground around him for his scalpel. "Fraggit, I was sure…"

"Here." Sideswipe pressed the handle of the scalpel into Ratchet's hand.

"Thanks." Ratchet closed his fingers around the instrument and went back to work, canting a cheeky grin in Sideswipe's direction. "Y'know, you'd make quite a good nurse with a technique like that." He teased.

"No thanks." Ratchet could hear the smile in Sideswipe's voice. "The uniform would clash terribly with my paint." The red twin chuckled.

"And here I thought Sunstreaker was the vain one."

"Nah, I'm just more subtle about it."

"You? Subtle? That'll be the day." Ratchet mock snorted.

A groan from the warrior between them interrupted the banter.

"…Sides?" Sunstreaker asked weakly. Sideswipe caught his brother's hand between his own. "I'm here Sunny." He soothed.

Ratchet sat back on his haunches, summoned a rag from subspace and started wiping the accumulated gunk off his hands. "I'd hate to break up this touching reunion," he said, "but it sounds like the battle is winding down."

"I'll find Prime." Sideswipe volunteered, releasing his brother's hand and jogging out of the cave.

Several hours later and the weary battle unit were back in the safety afforded by the Ark's thick rock and metal walls.

Ratchet collapsed onto one of the wide couches in the medic's lounge with a groan. "I am _never_ taking optics for granted again." He announced; one hand reaching up to rub the edges of his newly repaired optical sensors and the barely visible weld seams on his face. Wheeljack, the only other occupant of the room, let out a small chuckle. "I still can't believe you performed surgery like that." He remarked. "If anyone else tried it you'd have their skid for being so stupid."

"Yeah, well, I know their innards far too well." Ratchet grumbled. "Hopefully they'll stay where they're supposed to for a bit longer this time."

"We can but hope." Wheeljack nodded sagely.

"True." Ratchet grunted as he got to his feet. "See ya in the morning 'jack."

Fin


End file.
